This invention relates to a sealing structure formed at a portion where a weather strip mounted along a header and a front pillar of a vehicle makes a contact with a front end of a roof side weather strip in a convertible type vehicle comprising a roof which opens by being folded or removed.
FIG. 9 illustrates a convertible type vehicle comprising a foldable hood 11 which forms a roof, wherein the hood 11 is stored at a backside of a vehicle body when it is folded to open the roof, while a front end of the hood 11 makes a contact with a header 12 and a top end of a front pillar 13 when it is in a closed position.
FIG. 10 illustrates a view of a portion positioned along a header 12 in a weather strip 15 which is mounted to a header which extends sideward from a top end of a front pillar 13 and a front pillar 13. The header 12 secures a top end of a front glass 14. The weather strip 15 comprises a mounting base portion 17 being mounted to a retainer 16 and two hollow seal portions 18, 19, wherein a hood 11 makes a contact with the hollow seals 18, 19 when the hood 11 is in a closed position, thereby sealing a gap between a top end of the hood 11 and the header 12.
FIG. 11 illustrates a roof side weather strip 22 which is mounted to a side edge of the hood 11 with a retainer 21. The roof side weather strip 22 comprises a mounting base portion 25 which is mounted to the retainer 21 fixed to a link 23 by a screw 24; a hollow seal portion 27 which is integrally formed with the mounting base portion 25, and makes a resilient contact with a top end of a side glass 26 after the side glass 26 moves upward to close; a hollow sub-seal portion 28 which makes a resilient contact with a hood 11 to prevent water from invading into an interior side of a vehicle by passing through a gap between the hood 11 and the hollow seal portion 27 in a direction shown by an arrow in the drawing while washing the vehicle with high pressure water.
As illustrated in FIG. 12, the roof side weather strip 22 is designed such that a front end thereof makes a resilient contact with a corner portion of the weather strip 15 which is mounted along the header 12 and the front pillar 13, and the sub-seal 28 is generally cut off at its front end. If the front end of the sub-seal 28 is left uncut, in case there is an inaccuracy in fitting operation of the roof side weather strip 22, a front end of the sub-seal portion 28 would impinge against the hollow seal portion 19 of the weather strip 15 at a time the hood 11 is in a closed position, thereby deforming the hollow seal portion 19 and impairing a sealing function between the hollow seal portion 19 and a front end of the hood 11. In the corresponding drawing, a portion shown with the black in the triangle indicates a die molded portion, while the white indicates an extrusion molded portion. Similar indication is applied in other drawings.
On the other hand, the cutting of the sub-seal portion described above induces a problem, that is, as illustrated in FIG. 12, the water invading in the direction shown by an arrow in FIG. 11 invades into an interior side of the vehicle through the cut off portion 29 of the sub-seal portion 28. Conventionally, there was a method to prevent such problem wherein a highly foamed sponge, e.g., EPT sealer is provided to the roof side weather strip 22, thereby making the EPT sealer elastically contact to the hood 11 to seal the cut off portion 29. There was also another method wherein a hole or holes for draining water is/are formed in the roof side weather strip 22 at a portion closer to the cut off portion 29 in order to drain the water invaded from the direction shown by an arrow in FIGS. 11 and 12 through the roof side whether strip 22 via the hole or holes. However, the former method using the EPT sealer induces an increase of a production cost, whereas the latter method forming the hole or holes in the roof side weather strip 22 has a difficulty in draining the water invading from the direction shown with the arrow in FIGS. 11 and 12 when a quantity of the invading water is large at a time of a car wash with highly pressured water.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a sealing structure formed at a contacting portion between a weather strip and a front end of a roof side weather strip wherein a hollow seal portion of the weather strip, which is mounted along a header and a front pillar of a vehicle, does not deform by being pushed by a front end of a roof side weather strip when a roof is in a closed position in a convertible type of vehicle in which the roof is folded or removed to open.